Exercise: It (might) make your gut bugs happy

Right about now I have visions of a little party going on in my intestines. Happy little bugs are setting up pinatas, dancing to Pharrell and meeting their brand new friends that have arrived in the neighborhood . How did I come to this conclusion? Because I’ve been to the gym this week and a new paper from experts at the National University of Ireland in Cork has found that people who exercise have a greater variety of gut bacteria in their intestines.

They studied rugby players comparing them to those who didn’t exercise as often – and found that the athletes had more types of bugs in their system (something associated with good health) and, interestingly, they specifically had a much higher levels of a bacteria associated with lower rates of obesity. Now, admittedly the rugby boys also ate higher levels of fruit and vegetables than the other group (something known to be associated with healthy gut profile) and the experts didn’t actually conclusively prove that jumping about triggers new bugs to move in, but still, they think they do and so I’ll go with it as another reason to hit the treadmill until someone says otherwise.

I’m a bit fascinated by gut bacteria. If you find last month’s Red magazine you might even come across a whole article I’ve written on it exploring how they might impact on everything from weight loss to how you react to stress. Fact is, experts are now saying that keeping your gut bugs healthy could be the missing link in preventing disease and fighting obesity. So, what are you going to do to make yours happy today?

My name is Helen. And what makes me happy is discovering the newest, strangest or most fun products, studies and ideas in the worlds of diet, fitness and health. I do this all day every day - and some of them make me go 'oooh' ...
* Oooh - I just learned something
* Oooh - that's bonkers
* Oooh - that's fun/innovative/fantastic.
Those are the things you'll find on this blog.